Aoun Vows to Tackle All Pending Issues between Lebanon and Syria

 10 January 2025, Lebanon, Baabda: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun waits to receive his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides at Baabda presidential palace. Photo: Marwan Naamani/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
10 January 2025, Lebanon, Baabda: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun waits to receive his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides at Baabda presidential palace. Photo: Marwan Naamani/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
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Aoun Vows to Tackle All Pending Issues between Lebanon and Syria

 10 January 2025, Lebanon, Baabda: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun waits to receive his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides at Baabda presidential palace. Photo: Marwan Naamani/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa
10 January 2025, Lebanon, Baabda: Lebanese President Joseph Aoun waits to receive his Cypriot counterpart Nikos Christodoulides at Baabda presidential palace. Photo: Marwan Naamani/ZUMA Press Wire/dpa

Lebanese President Joseph Aoun stressed on Sunday the importance of cooperation to address all pending issues between Lebanon and Syria.

He received a telephone call from head of Syria’s new authorities Ahmed al-Sharaa, who congratulated him on his election as president on Thursday.

Aoun underscored the “fraternal relations that bind the Syrian and Lebanese people.”

The officials also stressed the importance of building and developing positive relations between their countries.

Lebanese caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati had visited Damascus on Saturday for talks with al-Sharaa.

The leaders stressed their keenness on building long-term strategic relations based on mutual respect and national sovereignty after decades of strained ties.

The trip was the first by a head of government to Syria since Bashar al-Assad was toppled by a sweeping opposition offensive on Dec. 8, and the first visit by a Lebanese premier to neighboring Syria in 15 years. Ties between Damascus and Beirut have often been fraught since they became independent states in the 1940s.



Rescuers Say Israeli Strike Killed at Least 12 People in South Gaza 

Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a tent sheltering displaced people at the Gaza seaport, in Gaza City, June 4, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a tent sheltering displaced people at the Gaza seaport, in Gaza City, June 4, 2025. (Reuters)
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Rescuers Say Israeli Strike Killed at Least 12 People in South Gaza 

Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a tent sheltering displaced people at the Gaza seaport, in Gaza City, June 4, 2025. (Reuters)
Palestinians inspect the damage at the site of an Israeli airstrike on a tent sheltering displaced people at the Gaza seaport, in Gaza City, June 4, 2025. (Reuters)

The civil defense agency in Gaza said an Israeli strike on a tent housing displaced Palestinians near the southern city of Khan Younis on Wednesday killed at least 12 people.  

"At least 12 people were killed, including several children and women, in a strike by an Israeli drone this morning on a tent for displaced persons" near Khan Younis, the agency's spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP, adding that four more people had been killed in other strikes.  

The Israeli army did not immediately respond to an AFP request for comment.  

Since a truce collapsed in March, Israel has intensified its operations to destroy Hamas, the Palestinian group whose October 7, 2023 attack triggered the war in Gaza. 

Hamas's unprecedented attack resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures. 

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza says at least 4,240 people have been killed in the territory since Israel resumed its offensive on March 18, taking the war's overall toll to 54,510, mostly civilians.